 | Poems of Freneau |  |
BELIEF AND UNBELIEF:
Humbly recommended to the serious consideration of creed makers.
What some believe, and would enforce
Without reluctance or remorse,
Perhaps another may decry,
Or call a fraud, or deem a lie.
Without reluctance or remorse,
Perhaps another may decry,
Or call a fraud, or deem a lie.
421
Must he for that be doom'd to bleed,
And fall a martyr to some creed,
By hypocrites or tyrants framed,
By reason damn'd, by truth disclaim'd?
And fall a martyr to some creed,
By hypocrites or tyrants framed,
By reason damn'd, by truth disclaim'd?
On mere belief no merit rests,
As unbelief no guilt attests:
Belief, if not absurd and blind,
Is but conviction of the mind,
As unbelief no guilt attests:
Belief, if not absurd and blind,
Is but conviction of the mind,
Nor can conviction bind the heart
Till evidence has done its part:
And, when that evidence is clear,
Belief is just, and truth is near.
Till evidence has done its part:
And, when that evidence is clear,
Belief is just, and truth is near.
In evidence, belief is found;
Without it, none are fairly bound
To yield assent, or homage pay
To what confederate worlds might say.
Without it, none are fairly bound
To yield assent, or homage pay
To what confederate worlds might say.
They who extort belief from man
Should, in the out-set of their plan,
Exhibit, like the mid-day sun
An evidence denied by none.
Should, in the out-set of their plan,
Exhibit, like the mid-day sun
An evidence denied by none.
From this great point, o'erlook'd or miss'd,
Still unbelievers will exist;
And just their plea; for how absurd
For evidence, to take your word!
Still unbelievers will exist;
And just their plea; for how absurd
For evidence, to take your word!
Not to believe, I therefore hold
The right of man, all uncontrol'd
By all the powers of human wit,
What kings have done, or sages writ;
The right of man, all uncontrol'd
By all the powers of human wit,
What kings have done, or sages writ;
Not criminal in any view,
Nor—man!—to be avenged by you,
Till evidence of strongest kind
Constrains assent, and clears the mind.
Nor—man!—to be avenged by you,
Till evidence of strongest kind
Constrains assent, and clears the mind.
1815
| Poems of Freneau | |